Gleison Miranda, Funai/APThe 'uncontacted Indians' of the Envira, photographed during an overflight in May 2008, are located in the Terra Indigena Kampa e Isolados do Envira, Acre state, Brazil, close to the border of Peru. (AP)

Body-Heat Sensors Are the Latest Tribal Preservation Effort

November 19, 2008 01:00 PM

by
findingDulcinea Staff

Body-heat sensors will soon help Brazil find and protect indigenous tribes in the Amazon rain forest, a crucial development in tribal life preservation efforts.

Survival International, an organization working to support tribal peoples, estimates that there are close to 100 "isolated tribes remaining in the world, with half of them in Peru and Brazil," reports Emily Dunn of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. According to Dunn, native tribes face continuous threats from modern life—newly constructed roads and dams, and outside diseases, for example.

But tribal groups will soon have an added defense: planes outfitted with body-heat sensors that will be used by the Brazilian government to find "and protect" indigenous tribes in the Amazon rain forest, reported the Associated Press. Pinpointing where tribes live could "help the National Indian Foundation create reserves where loggers or farmers are barred," allowing tribal peoples to continue their way of life undisturbed.

Loss of land to intruders is a huge treat to tribes, but new infrastructure also plays a part in the tribes' deterioration, say environmentalists. Others feel that Brazil's plans to construct dams and a highway in the Amazon are necessary for regional conservation.

The high-tech planes are the latest development in the Amazon's ongoing tribal saga. In June 2008, an Al Jazeera interview with photographer Jose Carlos Meirelles led to charges from several media outlets that the he and Survival International made false claims that they had discovered and photographed a previously unknown indigenous tribe in the rainforest.

The original stories about the tribe simply got out of hand, says Survival International expert Fiona Watson. “Some of the media got very carried away and started talking about undiscovered tribes,” she said to LiveScience.

Survival International released a statement to clarify the situation, saying: "The story is not a hoax, and none of those involved in working to protect these Indians' rights have ever claimed they were 'undiscovered.'"

The Guardian, in an article titled "Secret of the Lost Tribe That Wasn't," reported on June 22 that Meirelles "admitted" that the tribe was known about since 1910 and that his sighting of them was carefully planned.

Survivor International, which helped to publicize the photos, denied Tuesday that it had misled the media. The group claims that it never described the tribe as "lost" and that its objective at the time had been to show that the tribe existed. "These Indians are in a reserve expressly set aside for the protection of uncontacted tribes: they were hardly 'unknown,'" said Survival International Director Stephen Corry in a statement.

Warner Todd Huston says that the media misreported the tribe story twice. It first misrepresented the facts when the photos were initially released, by calling the tribe "lost," and now by calling the story a hoax.

The Amazon rainforest, which is the largest rainforest on Earth, is increasingly threatened by deforestation and development. Located in the Amazon River Basin, it covers about 40 percent of South America and includes parts of the countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.